* * * * *

                      Afghanistan—it's a dangerous place

> Gone were the network war hogs who hiked in from Peshawar and wrote
> stirring tales of muj bravery. Now sleek white UN turboprops off-loaded
> female journalists in waiting chauffeur-driven black Mercedes. Over lunch
> and dinner at the UN mansion (with exercise room, satellite television and
> bar) they chronicled the horrors of the lack of health care, the treatment
> of women and generally how life sucked and apparently just for women. There
> was even a standard journo junket. The first stop was to see Mullah
> Qalaamuddin, the deputy head of the Religious Police (the Department for
> the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice), where every writer was
> assured to get a few giggles from the latest fatwah: no paper bags, no
> white socks, four fingers of beard and no picture-taking. Then off to a
> barber for a little humor, a clandestine visit to a girl's school, pack a
> lunch for the Friday executions and then back to Peshawar to file. The
> object of their journalist lust? The dreaded burqa, a garment worn by every
> women outside of cosmopolitan Kabul for centuries but suddenly held up as
> being a sign of the devil in Kabul. Not many paid attention when Hekmatyar
> made it mandatory long before the Talibs showed up. The writers never
> really mentioned that they were in the most destroyed city on earth, a
> militarily occupied zone with a war raging 15 kilometers to the north,
> rockets raining into the city and young men are pressganged. Somehow in
> their zeal to create women's rights in a country staggering to its knees,
> they forget to mention the complete lack of jobs, housing, medical care,
> health services and education for men (who must provide for their women and
> children) let alone women. The articles inflamed the world and shut down
> any aid to the wartorn region. How did the Taliban get lynched on women's
> rights? It's akin to taking the KKK to task for not providing minority
> scholarships.
>

Afghanistan-DangerFinder [1]

This is a fun site. The commentary is colorful yet very informative, using
humor to get the point across—this (and every other country profiled on the
site) is a very dangerous place to be, and why the place is dangerous.

They even give background information on the Players in the area, like this
on the Osama bin Laden:



> So let's just say Binny is the bearded Ross Perot of the Middle East.
> Technically Binny Bang Bang (he keeps going an going and going and going …)
> can now join Castro and Qaddafi for drinks at the Bad Boy's Club, unless
> the United States keeps turning off his cash flow. A man with 40 brothers,
> 13 sisters and wealthy patrons can probably play hide the pickle longer
> than the State Department can. For now bin Laden is a right-wing
> billionaire (or millionaire or even destitute, depending who you talk to)
> who combines industrial activity with political activism.
>

Afghanistan-Osama bin Laden [2]

Or even this on the Taliban:



> The black-turbaned Taliban are a PR agent's worst nightmare. A visual mix
> of Darth Vader gansta rappers and rejects from a Bible play, they come to
> press conferences with Noriega-style Ray Bans, scruffy beards, long black
> robes, armed bodyguards and an attitude that makes Louis Farrakhan seem
> like Mr. Rogers. The Taliban are not bad guys, they're just a little rough
> around the edges and they don't get out much. Maybe a guest shot on Oprah
> with a sensitivity coach would help them "address their issues." Their
> leaders are primarily 40-something muj selected from the Durrani tribes
> from the backwater southern provinces of Helmand and Uruzgan. They are a
> simple, pure people led by very religious but culturally isolated mullahs
> who want outsiders out of Afghanistan and to establish a pure Islamic
> state. They are simply mad as hell at foreign intervention and ain't gonna
> take it any more. The funny thing is their northern enemy says they are
> just the latest Pakistani-backed stooges in this too-long-running war
> movie/soap opera.
>

Afghanistan-The Taliban [3]

You should probably just go read the site before I quote it in its entirety
here.

[1] http://www.comebackalive.com/df/dplaces/afghanis/index.htm
[2] http://www.comebackalive.com/df/dplaces/afghanis/player7.htm
[3] http://www.comebackalive.com/df/dplaces/afghanis/player10.htm

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